Agent Orange Sends Shock Waves Of Speed Punk

Not every band can cram more than 20 songs into a 60-minute set, but Agent Orange managed it Tuesday night at Cafe Nine in New Haven.

Concision is the key. The veteran California surf-punk trio has only a handful of songs stretching past the 2-minute mark. Even then, "Some of them are too long," singer and guitarist Mike Palm lamented.

Playing fast helps, too. The band went racing through its songs, some of which radiated through the packed-to-capacity bar with the speed and force of shock waves from an explosion. There was no leisurely stretching out on songs from these three, just pell-mell churning on punk power chords and stinging single-note surf leads.

Although the surf influence wasn't at the forefront of every song the band played, it always resurfaced sometimes on one of Agent Orange's potent mariachi-laced instrumentals, sometimes in a cover.

Sepulchral bass drove "It's All a Blur," and clanging guitar propelled the surprisingly lovelorn rocker "Wouldn't Last a Day." The band dedicated "Too Young To Die" to comic George Carlin, who died last week at 71, and paid a different sort of a tribute to a different sort of icon later in the set with a cover of Dick Dale's "Misirlou."

Joined on guitar by a friend who had been manning the merch booth, Agent Orange's speedy take on the surf classic heard in "Pulp Fiction" was the perfect melding of vintage guitar rock and punk ferocity.

The New Haven hard-core band No Image played before Agent Orange, pounding its way through cathartic songs that followed in the tradition of pioneer '80s hardcore band Minor Threat.